Platforms have been developed for laser ablation machining for creating complex micron scale structured surface tooling on a flat polymer sheet. These platforms use excimer lasers to ablate polymer sheets that are held to a vacuum chuck. An optical train controls the laser beam and images a mask onto the surface of the polymer, ablating a pattern that is controlled by the design of the mask. These systems have proven the capability to produce a wide variety of structures with mechanical and optical properties. The structures created on these platforms can be used to create flat replicates for prototypes. Roll tools can be created from the flat tools by welding a nickel copy of the polymer into a cylindrical sleeve. Such a sleeve will have a seam in it, which can be undesirable when making films from the roll tools.
A need exists for additional ways to make a roll tool using laser ablation, in particular, a cylindrical tool without a seam.